12, Apr 2019 | CJP Team

United Nations human rights experts said that the arrest of Julian Assange, who co-founded Wikileaks, “exposed him ‘to the risk of serious human rights violations’, if extradited to the United States,” UN News reported. On Twitter, Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, said, “By expelling #Assange from the Embassy, #Ecuador allowed #GB to arrest him, taking him 1 step closer to extradition to the #US, thus exposing him to risks of serious #humanrightsviolations. #GB has arbitrary detained Mr Assange possibly endangering his life for the last 7 years”. Joe Cannataci, Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy, said in a statement that Assange’s arrest “will not stop my efforts to assess Mr. Assange’s claims that his privacy has been violated. All it means is that, instead of visiting Mr Assange and speaking to him at the Embassy…I intend to visit him and speak to him wherever he may be detained.” Nils Melzer, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, released a statement prior to the arrest, saying that if Assange was arrested and extradited, it “could expose him to a real risk of serious violations of his human rights, including his freedom of expression, his right to a fair trial and the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Assange was arrested April 11 after Ecuador withdrew asylum. He had been living at the country’s embassy in London.